This one actually happened today, and I was wondering what the consensus would be of this board on how to handle it. Please post reasoning for responses especially if you would answer "other". .. had about 8 responses to choose from, then I noticed the 4-limit when I went to post.
I’ll post what happened later if this thread generates interest.
Scenario:
It is in the middle of the day, and you have found yourself doing a favor for a relative in his front yard. It’s a decent neighborhood, but not the best, and you know it fairly well. You are on the sidewalk, about 10 feet from the road. Walking at the edge of the road and coming in your direction is an average sized man that you’ve never seen before. He appears to be in his mid-50s, is "of another race" (is that the PC term now ?), a little pudgy but not fat. His clothes are dirty and have some loose grass stuck to them in places. They’re also wet except for the shoulders and the loosely hanging parts of shirt. His face, hair, and arms are dry.
He’s staggering a bit, dragging his feet some, talking and mumbling to himself (no bluetooth
).
He is armed with stick about 22" long and an inch and a quarter or so in diameter … shaking it at cars passing close to him and complaining loudly at the cars.
He stops when he sees you and yells "HEY ! (a few unintelligible words) the park" when he’s at a distance of 15 feet (unless you had retreated upon seeing him, in which case the distance was at 30-40 feet.) He’s waving around the stick but not in a directly threatening manner, more like gesturing with it.
Your cell phone was accidentally destroyed less than an hour before … so the only phone is inside the house if you want to call 911. … really … not kiddin’! … bad day today.
The nearest park is located 10 blocks down and 4 blocks over from where you are.
Calls to police in the area usually take about 30 minutes (at best) for them to arrive, so at his current walking speed he could be well away in an unknown direction by the time they got there.
If it matters, consider yourself to be a little younger, larger, and physically stronger than him.(I’m 6’2", 240 lbs. some, but not a lot of it is fat … "heavy body type" that comes from construction work)
You are lawfully carrying a concealed weapon if you normally do so. (I wasn’t armed, but hey ! This is a firearms board.)
The choices :
1. retreat to house, ignore him, or give directions to the park at a distance
2. Approach in the most non-threatening way possible, weapon fully concealed, hands where he can see them, speaking to him, etc.
3. Command him to drop the stick and be ready to draw your pistol.
4. Draw pistol, command him to drop stick, etc